FALL RIVER — For almost a decade, the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast has improved steadily in hundreds of small details and tiny nuances, all to take the atmosphere to Victorian times, back to 1892.

Things like the perfect blue embroidered stool. Just the right piece of artwork to match Lizzie Borden’s pansy pin. The many carefully chosen spots for the tongue-in-cheek ceramic black cats. And, the addition of period-look lighting originally made to use gas.

Each piece adds to the story.

Besides the bed and breakfast’s infamous storied past, it is a business after all. Visitors and guests to the house expect not only to learn the gruesome tale of how Andrew and Abby Borden were hacked to death with a hatchet, but to feel the heat of the period cooking stove, run a finger over the embroidered doilies, pick up a photograph of Lizzie Borden and sit on the couch that replicates the one where Andrew was murdered.

Shelly Dziedzic, a B&B tour guide and Borden historian, said every piece purchased for the house is a “device for time travel.”

The recently found cooling board with cane bottom dates to Victorian times and is a definite talking piece for visitors.

Dziedzic bought it on eBay. The cooling board was used in Victorian times to place dead bodies upon. The Bordens were each placed on top of a cooling board on the dining room table after they were discovered dead. The cane at the bottom is to allow air flow and cool the body faster. The holes also allow bodily fluids to drain.

The hand crank coffee grinder in the kitchen is another nice find. It’s made of metal and glass and hangs on the wall. Best of all, it still works.

Dziedzic said it isn’t easy running both a museum and bed and breakfast from the same location.

The furniture and other embellishments must be both “historically correct and practical.”

For instance, the dark wood armoire in the Morse room is also a nice spot to store linens. And, while guests enjoy a visit to the basement (after all, it’s where police looked for the murder weapon), they just might hear the hum of the dryer in the background.

The dining room table is one of those pieces that is hard to replace, and it is on their wish list.

“We’ve gone through more chairs,” Dziedzic said.

They’re looking for a period table and chairs, but they must be sturdy enough to stand up to the breakfasts and talks given to thousands of visitors to the bed and breakfast each year.

Dziedzic has something else on her wish list: a black horse hair-covered platform rocker, “like the one Abby had.”

But, many items have been found, like the 1880’s red embroidered foot stool, that doubles as a slipper box.

The decorative fire screen covering the fireplace in the parlor is “our latest prize,” Dziedzic said.

Purchased at the Rhode Island Antique Center, it dates to the 1870s and has a hand-painted oil on canvas inset in the frame.

The bright blue pansy-covered stool in Lizzie’s room upstairs fits in perfectly with the decor, and with the pansy she is wearing in her portrait.

Dziedzic and Lee Ann Wilber, house manager and curator, are aware of their unique job in preservation and entertainment.

“Each piece helps tell the story,” Wilber said. “When put together with the tour guide’s words, they are visual clues that help people understand the story.”

The house itself is a ticket to time travel. The Greek-styled 1845 home was lived in by the Borden family for two decades.

Andrew Borden bought the house in 1872 from his uncle, Charles Trafton, who also owned the houses beside and behind the Borden residence.

“The neighborhood was all residential at the time,” Dziedzic said.

The house is well-preserved, with not much changed.

It has its original woodwork and fireplaces. The same shelves in the kitchen closet were there when Lizzie Borden took her dress from the middle shelf and burned it in the stove. Some said it was to hide murder evidence.

The radiators that Andrew had installed in the house keep guests warm in the winter more than a century later.

During its years as a private residence in the 20th century, the house lost some of its Victorian appeal with the addition of arches, linoleum, and other modern amenities.

Wilber and Dziedzic have worked to restore the house over the last decade into something that people want to visit, for both historical and paranormal reasons.

And, they enjoy it.

“It’s almost like having a big doll house to decorate,” Dziedzic said.

To learn more about daily tours or spending the night at the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast, visit lizzie-borden.com or call 508-675-7333.

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